here to discuss them is new york magazine film critic, david ede edelstein. there's a lot of politics in movies this year, especially "lincoln." let's take a look at the film, a piece of it. >> please, first common notion is this. things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. that's a rule with mathematical reasoning. it's true because it works. has done and always will do. in his book, hmm. he says this is self evident. you see, there it is. even in that 2,000-year-old book of mechanical law, it is a self evident truth that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. >> what do you think, david, of that movie? as a movie and then also as history. just educational to americans. >> well, it's fascinating, isn't it? it's like an epic inside baseball movie because it doesn't take the piece of lincoln's life that we're most familiar with. instead, the civil war is almost done. and here is a man who is weighing how to translate this horrible, horrible war and the emancipation pom proclamation, freeing the slaves and how to